Square Enix banks on the future of cloud gaming with Project Flare

Square Enix is making a big move into cloud gaming through its new tech venture Project Flare, which it touts as the future of the industry.

The Final Fantasy developer and publisher is working on a new patented architecture which it says will uncap AI and physics processing and enable improved 'streaming' of games.

Square Enix has collaborated with another publishing giant, Ubisoft, on the project, and aims to team up with other interested developers and partners.

Ubisoft's Quebec arm is currently working on a new means of streaming games on Project Flare directly to players, as well as connecting a user's game platform to the service.

Square Enix chairman Yoichi Wada said there had not been many technological breakthroughs during the last few years, and as a result "content design has stalled", and has put gaming tech out of sync with the rise of new business models such as free-to-play.

As a result, the publisher is looking to cloud gaming to drive the future of the game industry.

"In addition to revolutionary business models, we should be able to leverage the power of this groundbreaking technology to create completely new game experiences," he said.

"This will result in a significant leap for the game industry. Furthermore, cloud games will fundamentally change the game industry ecosystem. Not only will cloud games offer completely new experiences, it will also revolutionise how we market, develop and finance games.

"I see cloud gaming to be the culmination of the digital network era of the game industry."

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot added: “Ubisoft and Square Enix share a similar vision for how cloud gaming will drive our industry forward. The technical advances made by Square Enix and Ubisoft’s growing expertise in cloud computing infrastructure will eventually help us deliver gaming experiences that are more accessible and immersive than anything available today.”